Saturday saw North Fermanagh 1st XI team head north to Londonderry to take on Brigade 2nds in the final game of the season. With the title still in the balance, acting captain Greg Piergrosse, hoped it was going to be third time lucky against the team they had recorded their only defeat against this season.

North Fermanagh (NFCC) needed to win to level the scores at the top of the league and score more bonus points than the home side to be in with a chance of lifting the trophy.

Brigade won the toss and opted to bowl first, putting NFCC into bat. David Smith (28) and Rawal Waseem (12) started steadily dealing well with the deft bowling. After scoring a number of boundaries, Rawal was bowled by C. Bawn.

Nishant Bhardwaj (15) was the next into bat and continued to work well with David to add runs. However, the loss of three quick wickets raised concerns for the Fermanagh men. The wickets led to the introduction of Chris Faris (85) and Matthew Morrison (32). The pair settled in quickly and started to increase the run rate. After scoring a flurry of boundaries with Matty scoring some huge sixes, Morrison was bowled by A Baggley.

David Mills (64*) was the next to the crease. David and Chris continued to increase the run rate and caused the Brigade team real problems. North Fermanagh finishing their innings on an impressive 267 for 6 of their 40 overs.

The North Fermanagh bowling attack couldn’t have wished for a better start after Badar Mahmood picked up his first wicket bowling A Baggley (4) in the first over.

David Mills was the next to strike collecting the wicket of A. Kitson (22) caught deep in the field by Lukman. The following ball led to another wicket, J. Hall (12) bowled again by Badar.

J. Scott (64) settled in at the crease, however, the bowlers continued to restrict the batters from scoring freely and after the dismissal of three further wickets by Rawal, Mills and Rory Maguire the outlook looked positive for the Fermanagh team.

The team as a whole worked well in the field with wicketkeeper, Greg Piergrosse taking a number of outstanding stops to prevent the home side from scoring and Tim Beacom and Chris Faris putting the bodies on the line to block shots.

The introduction of T. Nelson (50*) then started to cause Fermanagh some issues. The experienced big hitter got quickly into his stride and scored briskly. With one over to go, the Brigade batters reached their target to receive the losing bonus points they required. The batters, supporters and home umpires celebrated on the pitch. The home excitement continued over the following balls with the NFCC bowler having to stop his run up on two occasions as the joy of winning the league got the better of the home umpire.

After the celebrations the NFCC picked up a further wicket, with Brigade reaching 246 for 9 from their 40 overs. On any other occasion an impressive win against a strong team, but the win wasn’t enough for the travelling team.

A disappointing way to finish a very positive season, however with three matches being abandoned due to bad weather, it is amazing that the North Fermanagh men were able to be still in contention on the last day of the season.

For a team only promoted from league three last season, to finish with only one defeat, whilst the league winners lost three matches, all players and supporters should be extremely proud of their achievements this year and the future looks bright for cricket in Fermanagh.